The present invention relates to a fuel cell system equipped with a purge valve, and more particularly to a technology employed when an abnormality of the purge valve is detected.
In a system using a fuel cell, nitrogen contained in air or water that was generated by the electrochemical reaction accumulates as an impurity in a system for supplying a fuel gas to fuel electrodes. For this reason, purging is periodically conducted by discharging hydrogen gas. As a technology for detecting abnormality in a hydrogen purging valve, which is used for such purging, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-92125 discloses a fuel cell control apparatus comprising a hydrogen purge command detection unit for detecting whether a purge command of the hydrogen purge valve is present and a trouble determination unit for determining an open-type trouble and a closed-type trouble of the hydrogen purge valve by comparing the target pressure value of the anode and the actual value. For example, when the trouble determination unit detects an open-type trouble, that is, that the hydrogen purge valve is not closed despite the fact that no purge command was issued, hydrogen is prevented from being discharged from the hydrogen purge valve to the outside by setting the ON/OFF control valve to OFF and shutting down the flow in a hydrogen circulation channel.